Do I have a Single or Dual Link DVI port.

[philbeeney]

I have a 17 PowerBook G4 purchased from the UK in August 2004. I'm thinking of purchasing a 30" Apple Cinema Display to attach to the PowerBook.

However according to the ACD specs, I must have a dual link DVI port to be able to handle the output. I do remember upgrading the graphics card so that I had the 128MB of VRAM instead of the standard 64MB.

How can I determine if I have a single or dual-link DVI port.?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Chundles]

MacTracker says that the 17" PowerBook made in that range is a 1.5GHz model, is that the speed of yours?

If so you have a single-link DVI port. Neither the 64MB or the 128MB card had Dual-DVI at that stage.

The revision introduced in January 2005 was the first with optional Dual-link DVI video out.

So, the best you could hope for with that model is the 23" ACD - certainly not bad but it's not the 30" is it? The only way you could run the 30" ACD and still retain clarity would be to run it at 1280x800 meaning each "pixel" would be made up of four physical pixels and the image wouldn't have to be interpolated where pixels would otherwise overlap. Obviously that's not going to look too good unless you're using it from about 50 feet away.

The 23" ACD (or any 1920x1200 display) is the highest resolution you can run digitally from your PowerBook.

 

[philbeeney]

MacTracker says that the 17" PowerBook made in that range is a 1.5GHz model, is that the speed of yours?

If so you have a single-link DVI port. Neither the 64MB or the 128MB card had Dual-DVI at that stage.

The revision introduced in January 2005 was the first with optional Dual-link DVI video out.

So, the best you could hope for with that model is the 23" ACD - certainly not bad but it's not the 30" is it? The only way you could run the 30" ACD and still retain clarity would be to run it at 1280x800 meaning each "pixel" would be made up of four physical pixels and the image wouldn't have to be interpolated where pixels would otherwise overlap. Obviously that's not going to look too good unless you're using it from about 50 feet away.

The 23" ACD (or any 1920x1200 display) is the highest resolution you can run digitally from your PowerBook.

Bugger, that's what I thought. Thanks for the response.

Oh well, looks like I'll have to persuade my credit card to come out the wallet and purchase a 17" MacBook Pro.